Under great attention of the British media, the Paul Greengrass film 'Bloody Sunday' premiered in a gala showing in Derry last weekend. The film deals with the Bloody Sunday shootings in Derry on January 30th, 1972. Ulster Television and TV3 will transmit the film in the last week of January, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the events.
As reported in The Irish Times, Granada, which produced the film with Hell's Kitchen, is committed to transmitting the film on the ITV network on the 30th of January.
"We are enormously happy with the finished film," said Arthur Lappin of Hell's Kitchen two weeks ago. He had hoped for a release in the cinemas, as the film was made with that purpose in mind. But as promised, Lappin has the film released on video by the end of this week, two weeks before its Television transmission. I think the film itself is immensely important, not just as a dramatic motion picture, but as a powerful cinema-verité treatment of the day, which was probably the most important event in Ireland since the Treaty. It's a very affecting film."
The Jim Sheridan production received a grant of £287,500 from the Film Council last year, prompting controversy in the UK because of the film's subject matter.
Relatives of the victims of the Bloody Sunday shootings have watched a gala showing of a new film, dramatising the events in Northern Ireland 30 years ago. As reported by the BBC, the 1,000-strong audience at the screening of Bloody Sunday in Derry included city leaders, actors and Sinn Fein MP Martin McGuinness - second in command of the IRA on 30 January 1972.
Afterwards Mr McGuinness, who is due to testify to the ongoing Saville Inquiry into the events of that day, described the dramatisation as "powerful and emotional". He also embraced the actor James Nesbitt, an Ulster Protestant who starred in the production,
Mr McGuinness praised producer Mark Redhead and writer-director Paul Greengrass for tackling such a traumatic event in which 13 civilians were shot dead by British paratroops after a civil rights march in the city.
"I think the fact that English people are prepared to tackle a subject that is of such great embarrassment to the British Government is to their eternal credit and I think helps the peace process," he said.
Mr McGuinness said Bloody Sunday had left a deep scar on the city.
"What really touched me watching the film was seeing the people of Derry," he said.
"They were allowed to participate and make their own film and tell the world the truth of what happened."
Nesbitt, who was just six-years-old on Bloody Sunday, spoke to relatives after the screening.
He said he had been extremely moved by the film and the audience reaction. "These people have lived with it for 30 years. I only lived with it for a year," he said.
"If it was tough for me, it's a damn sight tougher for them."
The former Bishop of Derry, Dr Edward Daly, who was a young priest on Bloody Sunday, said the film had provided a powerful anti-war statement.
"I found it a deeply emotional experience. The memories of that day live with me all the time.
"This film once again underlines that dialogue is always preferable to armed conflict," he said.
Michael McKinney, of the Bloody Sunday Trust, whose brother William was one of the victims, said he hoped millions of people in Britain would watch the film when it is broadcast on ITV in the near future.
"I hope they will make up their own mind about what happened," he said.
"We always said that our people were all totally innocent of the allegations made against them by the lawyers, the army and the British Government."
Bloody Sunday, which was shot mostly in Dublin, will be screened at next month's Sundance Film Festival in Utah in the U.S., on 15 January.
